Entrepreneur Jeff Mallett says he’s never had a job.
That might seem a strange thing to say, given that he made $21 million when he sold Reference Software, a company he founded. From there, he moved on to the then-young Yahoo!, where he served as its president and chief operating officer until 2002.
Today, Mallett’s varied basket of business interests include ownership stakes in the San Francisco Giants baseball team, soccer’s Vancouver Whitecaps and Indochino, a custom menswear company selling online and in stores in major international markets.
For Mallett, 51, who was speaking to students at the University of Victoria on Thursday, said it hasn’t been about the paycheque, or watching the clock.
It’s about having confidence and passion. It’s about personalizing tasks, about understanding facts and figures, and about finding the right people to work with.
“I’ve never had a job. I’ve had an opportunity,” he told a gathering of 300 in the engineering and computer sciences building.
Mallett, who still counts fellow students from his Campus View Elementary School days among his closest friends, spent a year at UVic.
He was UVic’s first Distinguished Entrepreneur of the Year in 2004, has funded a scholarship, and has previously returned to speak to students.
Mallett, whose parents were in the audience, was surprised by being named an honorary professor in the university’s Gustavson School of Business.
Personal fulfillment is the real driver over time, he told students. Young people can follow a passion and get experience before getting burdened by other things in life. “The only person you have to answer to is yourself,” he said. “I’m begging you to do that.”
Be open to learning. “Every job and volunteer experience is worth it, really.”
Try to experience as much as you can, he said. “This is the punch line: learn from it. Good, bad . . . what did I learn from it?”
Be sure to listen, he said. “I never learned anything while I was talking.”
Successful people typically have a consistent trait — they listen, he said.
“Beware of the person who constantly talks,” he said.
And while he urged students to be passionate about what they do, they must be practical and cover business basics as well. “Facts, figures matter,” said Mallett
In a time when we all have access to massive amounts of information, it’s important to be able to distill information, parse through it, and make sense of it, Mallett said.
Getting along with other people is critical in any walk of life, he said.
Mallett is constantly jotting down thoughts and ideas to review later. He said he’s good at managing his time, and has a constantly rolling priority list in his head.
A life in business hasn’t been about chasing money. “I like to create jobs,” he said. “That’s what I think I’m here on the planet for.”
Job creation is how Mallett measures his professional success. He figures that 85,000 jobs, including indirect jobs, were created during his time at Yahoo! Figure what your own goals are, he said. “This is your conscience speaking,” he said. “Find it and write it down.”
He said his most rewarding accomplishment is being a father to two daughters, now in university. His advice to women entering business: “Be yourself and have confidence.”
